Ladislav Vízek recalls the match between Kuwait and Czechoslovakia at the 1982 World Championship

During the 1982 World Championship, the Czechoslovak national team played in a group match against Kuwait. Ladislav Vízek played that match and recalls how Kuwait sent the Czechoslovakians home.

Czechoslovakia played Kuwait in the very first group match at the 1982 World Cup in Spain. The match ended in a 1:1 draw. After such a disappointing result, the Czechoslovaks failed to advance out of the group. They lost to England and drew with France, finishing in third place.

For Ladislav Vizek, the match against Kuwait was the worst game of his career. The match was a mess, it buried the whole tournament for Czechoslovakia. Vízek said Czechoslovakia was the favourite, but Kuwait managed to surprise him.

In comparison, according to the former national team player, the Kuwaiti national team is much stronger than in the horrible championship. There, it was a complete underdog that Czechoslovakia simply couldn’t cope with.

“We didn’t know the Kuwaitis at all. We had the feeling that we would just blow them away. They were trying, but they were second, third power category. It was a duty to beat them,” Vízek recalls.

How was the arrival home? “The criticism wasn’t pleasant then, there was a lot of it. But I take it with a grain of salt. Even though someone tore off my box and scratched my car.”

Czechoslovakia should have beaten Kuwait by a class difference, but it didn’t happen. In the Czech match against Kuwait, our national team will be the favourite, but as we know, Kuwait can surprise.

“The current national team is a royalty compared to us. We were the rascals from the East,” Vízek compares the national team today and in the past.

The Czech national team will play the match against Kuwait as a preparation before the last qualifying match for the World Cup. In that match, they will challenge Estonia, whom they must beat if they want to stay in the running for qualification.

Source:: iDnes